Canberra: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is “rediscovering” life after enjoying freedom in Australia after five years in a maximum security prison in London, his wife said on Thursday.
The 52-year-old landed in Canberra hours before he was charged in a US Pacific court with leaking military secrets.
In a plea deal, he was allowed to walk free, ending a 14-year legal battle with the US Department of Justice.
But prison time took its toll.
Assange did not attend a press conference after the attack, crying as he and his wife asked for privacy and time to recover.
Stella Assange told reporters Thursday: “He is saving his freedom for the first time in 14 years. He needs time to rest and recover. He is continuing his normal life. He needs space to do that.”
“Julian plans to swim in the ocean every day. He plans to sleep in a real bed. He plans to try real food. He plans to enjoy his freedom.”
The WikiLeaks publisher said she had not seen her two children, who were sleeping elsewhere when the plane landed.
Stella Assange told a US court hearing that she sent her husband a video of him “jumping on the sofa” in the hope that his father would return.
Assange is being held at Belmarsh Prison in London, where he is fighting extradition to the United States on charges under the 1917 Immigration Act.
He had been living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for seven years before being extradited to Sweden on sexual assault charges.
They haven’t had time to discuss what their lives will look like since he was released, said Stella, who met Assange when he was in the Ecuadorian embassy and married in a London prison.
Assange’s legal team has argued that the US Department of Justice’s lawsuit against his client will have a chilling effect on journalism.
The pardon came after a request by US President Joe Biden in Saipan, the capital of the US territory of the Northern Mariana Islands.
US Attorney Barry Pollack said: “The President of the United States has the absolute power to pardon. President Biden or any president after him can pardon Julian Assange.”
Stella Assange says her husband is “guilty of journalism”, which condemns journalism.
Assange has published hundreds of thousands of classified US documents on the WikiLeaks website since 2010.
He is a hero to those who defend free speech, but he is persecuted by those he believes to be a threat to US security and intelligence sources.
An Australian man was indicted by a US federal grand jury in 2019 on 18 counts stemming from WikiLeaks’ publication of national security documents.
Materials released by WikiLeaks include a 2007 video of a US helicopter gunship killing civilians in Iraq. Among the dead were a Reuters photographer and a driver.
On Wednesday, the US State Department addressed allegations that people were at risk.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters in Washington that “the documents we released contain information about individuals who had contact with the State Department.”
“They include opposition leaders, human rights activists around the world, whose positions are threatened.”
The US Department of Justice has banned Assange from re-entering the US without permission.
